Solstice 2024

So, this morning the sun rose one minute earlier than yesterday.  Inch by inch, the light returns – as it always does.  Aren’t we lucky?  I hosted a solstice celebration last night where we sat in the dark for an extended period of silence and then listened to a piece of music – before slowly relighting our candles.  We pondered what light we can offer the world in the coming year and what light we most need for ourselves in the coming year.  We also tried to focus on our connection to the cosmos by dancing with earth objects – feather, stone, pinecone, shell.  It’s so easy to forget that we are actually made of stardust – I had a friend who always signed her letters. “Stella Debris”.  We also held our earth objects and asked what prayer they had to give us.  If you are so inclined in these new days of increasing light, I invite you to ask those same questions.  Perhaps to go on a walk at sunrise and see what you notice on the earth.  To listen for a word that reminds you , you are connected to this glorious earth and sky. 

WINTER SOLSTICE 2024

Solstice arrives again

precisely on schedule,

tilts us faithfully

toward the light.

We could stop

our own whirling

to see where

our orbits take us,

to notice what

we long for

and lean towards

on this longest night.

To remember

that we are carried

in our journey

through the heavens,

to whisper

a prayer

to the stars

to this sweet earth.

~Penny Hackett-Evans

Acknowledge Your Desires

I wrestle with what I call the “wanting monster” that lives inside me.  It is astounding how much I find myself wanting.  Things, ways of being, comfort, things, abilities, things.  Did I say things??  Especially at this time of year – I can find all sorts of things to buy myself for Christmas.  It is the season to indulge after all!  At the same time, I dislike all this wanting, of course.  I am humbled by friends who say they have a “buy nothing” Christmas.  I have more of most anything you might name than a person needs.  And still I want.  I want.  I am grateful for my desires – in the way that they illustrate I am alive and curious.  BUT…

Gratefulness.org an organization and website you should (and probably already do) know about.  In their December newsletter, they addressed this issue of wanting.  With their permission, I share their ideas with you.

Each time you have a desire, acknowledge it.

Get curious about it. Where did this desire come from? Is it internal or was it prompted by some external fact or person?

If you actually got this desire to come true, name three things you would do to be grateful for it.

So they are asking us, to be AWARE of our desires as they arise. And then to be CURIOUS about them. And THEN decide whether you will act on the desire. And if you do, how will you be sure to acknowledge its place in your life?

What do you want from this day?

Do you want more

            sun, friends, time?

Or do you want less

            demands, tasks, opinions from others?

Do you want bigger

            ideas, desserts, spaces?

Or, do you want smaller

            pains, hips, to-do lists?

Do you want shorter

            meetings, chapters, phone trees?

Or do you want longer

            sunsets, breaths, naps?

Me too.

All this wanting

something else.

We know better.

Still, we want, wish, wonder

our way through our days.

            ~Penny Hackett-Evans

"Don't Know"

“Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road.  Death is always with us in the marrow of every passing moment.  She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most. “   Frank Ostaseski

And so we continue our exploration of the Five Invitations that death offers us. according to Ostaseski.  Just to review;

1.      Don’t wait.   Be who you want to be, do what you want to do, NOW.  It’s not about death and dying, its about the unlived life.

2.     Welcome everything, push away nothing.  Resist the temptation to avoid thinking about unpleasant things.  Instead turn towards them to see what they have to offer.

3.     Bring your whole self to every experience.  Be open minded, open hearted.  Stay in every moment instead of running away.  Become curious.

4.     Find rest in the middle of things.  Look for moments of ease in every day, situation.

and finally, invitation number five – Cultivate a “don’t know” mind.  Clearly there are mysteries that unfold slowly to us.  Things we will never understand.  Instead of trying to “under stand”, be content to just “stand under” what can’t be known.  This is a much harder tasks than having answers to every question.  It is why we are UUs.  We pride ourselves in cultivating the courage to not know… to allow openness. 

Ostaseski says that one definition of “Samara” (suffering) is “the endless urge to improve”!  At some point, we need to rest in the knowledge that life is difficult and that we are doing the best we can with the circumstances we are in.  Bow down to the fact of suffering, and difficulty.  And find in the bowing a release of having to have everything be a certain way.  We don’t have to like the circumstances of our life… but we have to meet them. 

Death is ordinary.  We are all here and we are all disappearing.  Let us all find the courage to ask our death how we should live our life.  And let that inquiry bring some measure of peace and joy as we go on learning our way down this path of life.

I just want to name that these posts i have made about the Five Invitations came from my notes taken at a workshop with Frank Ostaseski. I felt the information was so important I want to share it with you. I do not want this very small whittling down of his very powerful book to dissuade you from reading the whole book. In fact, I hope the opposite is true. You will find MUCH information there and I surely hope you will buy or borrow the book from your library to see the depth of all he has to teach us. I know that many people have taken the book to read together slowly and study with a group. I hope you will consider that too. Here is a link to his website and the book. The Five Invitations.